Police unions further the-all-too-accurate conception that the police are an occupying force in poor communities of color, and are antithetical in principle and action to the progressive principles of the labor movement.

Politicians and politics as usual have given voters much about which to be mad; furious, in fact. But bullying is different. It comes from insecurity and fear, and lashes out with tactics of intimidation.

With a hot political season to come, I can't help recalling the first major political event I covered 42 years ago this week. It was the infamous Democratic convention in Chicago, when the conflict in the streets turned bloody.